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“If you can bring him in without issues, do that. If you have issues, take them all out.” I hated giving that order, but I also couldn’t have the Vipers contaminating my city any longer. I had planned to make their leader, Blaze, an offer that included a generous pay off to take his operation to another state. If his guys made trouble for mine, killing them all would be the only other solution to the problem.
I didn’t wait for a response before disconnecting the call. Knowing that the Vipers may be out for revenge if things went south, I decided to check on Delilah again. I wasn’t going to risk her life if I could help it.
Chapter 5
Eli
“Excuse me, Mr. Strain, the invoice for this month came from Midnight. You’re gonna wanna take a look at this,” Francine poked her head into my office without warning. I hated random interruptions. The look on her face told me that she disapproved of my attire. I was the boss, so I didn’t care about the dress code. I was more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, so that’s what I wore. The look I shot her changed her expression to embarrassment rather than judgement.
“I told you before, Frannie, just pay the thing and keep the records. I don’t need to see every little change.” I struggled to keep the annoyance from my voice, but it seemed as if this girl couldn’t understand. This was the third bill she had brought me this month to discuss increases. I didn’t want to see every statement that came in—that was why I hired a finance department.
“I know, Mr. Strain, and I’m sorry, but this one’s different. It's not just a ten or twenty percent increase. It has to be a mistake. I need you to approve it if you want me to pay the bill. This one’ll take two signatures to pass at the bank,” she explained. That piqued my interest.
“Two signatures? It’s that much more? That has to be a mistake.” I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to hand me the paperwork. I glanced over the documents and growled. I felt my fangs drop and click into place. “That cowardly, sniveling, son of a bitch can’t get away with this. I have half a mind to go down there and rip his head off.”
Frannie cringed at my reaction. I could tell she wasn’t familiar with how my business dealings were handled. She was a newer vampire and had only been with us for a few months, and things had run pretty smoothly for the past couple of years. It had taken a long time to straighten out the mess Kat left. I shook my head at the thought. I couldn’t afford to get lost in memories right now. I had to deal with Vinny.
“It’s okay, Frannie, I’ll take care of this. You can get back to work now. And take a two-hour lunch today, okay?” I turned back to my desk and set the invoice down before facing her again. She hadn’t moved. “Was there something else?” I asked impatiently.
“I need the invoice to pay it, sir.” Her words barely squeaked out.
“I’ll take care of it. Go back to your office and get back to work. Don’t worry about this invoice. Got it?” My tone could have been softer, but I was pissed that Vinny was trying to pull a fast one.
She nodded meekly and practically ran from the room. I sent her supervisor an email letting her know that Frannie was approved for a long lunch, but left out the reason. Jenna knew well enough that if I sent an email like that, someone saw something upsetting. Besides, I was the boss. I didn’t have to explain my decisions to anyone.
I turned my attention back to the bill from Midnight. I scanned it for any inconsistencies. It wasn’t faked. Vinny was actually trying to bill me double for the same shipment as last month. Why? If I hadn’t lost my temper in front of Frannie, I could have asked if there were any other papers with the invoice. Maybe he had included an explanation. Now it was too late. Frannie looked as if she would pee herself if she had to be in my office for a moment longer. I had to send her back to work, or risk her flipping out and deciding to sue.
I wasn’t about to let that happen, any more than I was going to let Vinny get away with billing me double.
I always did whatever it took to keep things in line. I was known for being a caring and supportive boss. There were moments, like today, when I lost my temper, but I made sure to go out of my way to make up for it. And I tried daily to do better than I did the day before.
In the beginning, I didn’t care who I was rude to or who was scared of me. I was a tyrant and I knew it. But I was also heartbroken after finding out that the man I had considered my brother had betrayed me. He was the reason my sister was dead. I needed to put that out of my mind. I couldn’t risk settling back into old habits. I needed to focus on today. This is what was necessary.
I tried to go back to my own work and let the invoice settle to the back of my mind. I had to review the applications today and decide who got to join our corporation as a newly transformed vampire. It was more difficult than it sounded. My mind wandered to the structure of our arrangement with the government.
The city was split into four zones, and each one was run by a vampire held corporation. Each of those company heads was responsible for reviewing applications and keeping their people in line. Essentially each company was a coven, a family. I was the leader of mine. I took that job more seriously than some. At this point, I didn’t even know who the other two heads were. I was so focused on taking down Maxwell Industries that nothing else mattered. My company was set up in a way that I could be hands off most of the time.
My guys knew to keep an eye on the gang activity. If anything seemed off, or a family was in danger, they would let me know. It seemed as if the humans were discovering our world slowly. As long as I continued to offer protection to them, they would keep my secret. In exchange, I gave several of them jobs across my part of town and my guys protected them from the scumbag gangs that I couldn’t seem to get rid of.
Once they found out about vampires, some people begged to be changed. They thought that vamps had it easier than humans. Not everyone knew about us for obvious reasons, and I wanted to keep it that way. There were some humans who had genuine reasons for requesting the change, like a terminal illness. Those requests were usually granted with minimal red tape.
The greedy ones were denied. Then if they tried to expose us, they were relocated and had their minds wiped. It was standard procedure, even though vamps didn’t exactly have a system of laws like humans did. Most were loyal to the vampire who turned them, or to their coven. The ones who weren’t usually had a good reason.
My sire had been killed a few years after I was turned. Because of his sacrifice, I was able to take over as leader. Fortunately, that wasn’t like the movies had portrayed it. Vampires' life forces weren’t connected or linked, although some did have psychic gifts and could speak across those types of bonds. Most of those gifts were just an enhancement of human ability.
I was a small child when I realized that I could sense what others were feeling. My mother was excited to have an empath for her son. She used my ability to her advantage as often as she could while I was still living with her. She was a con artist and liked to trick people out of their money. I hated it, but had to stay until I was old enough to make it on my own. If I helped her, I got rewarded. If I refused, I suffered.
My sister Kat had been the lucky one. Our grandmother had been ill when we were young and our mother refused to take care of her. Because Kat had no gifts, she was forced to stay with Grams and be her caretaker. It wasn’t a glamorous childhood, but I envied her for it.
My gift became enhanced once I was turned. If I wanted, I could read the feelings of each person in this building and tell you which ones belonged to which person without leaving my office. I could even push feelings into others if I tried hard enough. Most of the time I preferred not to do that. When I did use that part of my gift, it was usually to calm someone down.
I’d prefer to let people have their own free will. I lived by the thought that if I didn’t want it done to me, I wasn’t going to do it to someone else. Or I tried to, at least. There were always moments when a man had to show someone that he meant business or risk losing everything. And sometimes that meant I had to kill. To protect everything, to keep the family I had built safe.
I’d worked too hard all these years to get to where I was to let someone like Vinny take advantage of it. I knew that I couldn’t just bust in there and attack him, though. No matter how badly I wanted to pound his face in, I needed to calm down.
I locked my office and headed down to the gym that was located in the basement. I would take out some aggression before I went to see him. It wouldn’t do to lose my temper and alienate my supplier.
After I changed into my tank, shorts, and sneakers, I put my earbuds in and blasted my favorite music. There was nothing quite like rock from the 1980s and 1990s. I knew every word to every song, not that I’d be singing any of it, at least not when other people were around.
